TGIT: Trades, Tariffs, Trump, Tesla, Talking Heads and Other Stories

Tariffs vs. inflation, Tesla vs. BYD, Zero DTE, three tech stocks to trade, one solar bet, broken-wing butterflies, a free options guide, a new Rising Star and much more. First time reading? Join other risk-takers, entrepreneurs, traders, investors, data geeks and alpha types. Sign up for free here.

TGI Thursday! (6/12) Inflation at the wholesale level for the month of May came in lower than expected in this morning's Producer Price Index. That's on the heels of yesterday's May's CPI printing 0.1% on both headline and core — exactly backward from the inflationary apocalypse that cable news spent months selling.

So what exactly does this mean ... so far?

So far, President Donald Trump's tariff gambit is breaking every economist's model, and the silence from the prediction class is deafening. That's because businesses have eaten the costs instead of passing them through, consumers have kept shopping, and the Treasury started printing money the old-fashioned way — by collecting it.

So far, the numbers don't lie, even when the commentators do. Trump's tariff engine is generating revenue faster than Congress can spend it — 2025 collections are already smoking recent years. Strip out the bureaucratic math (net runs 80%-85% of gross after income tax offsets), and you're still looking at meaningful deficit reduction, plus runway for tax cut extensions. CBO's projecting close to a trillion over the decade from what the pundits called "economic vandalism."

So far, the trade war is disinflationary, markets have stabilized and the Fed's rate hawks look like they're fighting the last war. Trade policy as inflation control isn't exactly revolutionary — anyone who remembers economics before the current news cycle has seen this movie before.

So far, so good.

Stay lucky!

Letter to Editor

Elon Musk's political performance is finally catching up to the Tesla (TSLA) stock price, while China's BYD (BYDDY) has quietly became the world's EV king. Musk's Trump alliance triggered boycotts that the Street can no longer ignore — shares are down 15% as the Cybertruck flops and robotaxis remain vaporware. Meanwhile, BYD's $24,000 Dolphin Surf compact car is eating Tesla's lunch in Europe, driving 50% stock gains on actual execution instead of Twitter theatrics. The numbers don't lie: The EV revolution isn't happening in Austin — it's happening in Shenzhen, and investors are waking up to reality. Read Full Story

Back in April, Andrew Prochnow flagged ON Semiconductor (ON) as a compelling buy at around $36 per share, citing strong demand and attractive valuation. Fast forward a few weeks, and the stock is now trading near $52 per share — a gain of nearly 45%. While short-term moves are never guaranteed, it’s a reminder that solid fundamentals in under-the-radar names can still deliver outsized returns.

While the Street obsesses over AI darlings and cloud titans, three tech misfits are quietly crushing it. Roblox (RBLX) is signing up users and learning how to monetize them. Rubrik (RBRK) commands Ferrari prices for cybersecurity that actually works. Uber (UBER) has morphed from cash incinerator into profit machine. Each represents a different gamble: Viral growth vs. revenue reality, premium positioning against execution risk, and mature scaling over speculative hype. Andrew Prochnow, Luckbox analyst-at-large, handicaps the opportunities. Read Full Story

While politicians fumble around with energy policy, Nextracker (NXT) is quietly making bank by doing something revolutionary — making solar panels actually work better. Its tracking tech, which tilts panels to follow the sun like mechanical sunflowers, boosts efficiency by 40%. It’s the kind of improvement that makes accountants weep with joy. Trading at a discount despite $4.5 billion in backlog and $622 million in free cash flow, this isn't your typical green energy fairy tale. Read Full Story

Trading veteran and Crash Course educator Dr. Jim Schultz has some unconventional advice on the use of stop losses trading 0 DTE. In this special video, he shares real market data and research focused on "long-premium" trades and shows how his approach performs when everyone else is busy getting stopped out. Watch the video here.

Some earnings trades are about as sophisticated as binary betting on red or black in Vegas. But they don't have to be — broken-wing butterflies turn this casino nonsense into something resembling actual strategy. When Target (TGT) face-planted after earnings, this structured approach delivered profits while everyone else was explaining their losses to their therapists. Finally, there’s an earnings trading tactic that doesn't require a gambling addiction and a prayer circle. Watch Nick Battista's latest Life Cycle of a Trade, here.

While most trading educators are busy selling you dreams and monthly subscriptions, tastylive drops a legitimate bomb: 30+ options strategies, completely free, with everything short of making the trades for you. We're talking market conditions, setup instructions, profit zones and defensive moves when things go sideways – which they will because markets are sociopaths. Get your free guide here.

The conventional "diversify everything" portfolio gospel falls apart when you're starting with $10,000. The math is brutal: One Starbucks trade eats 10% of your account, leaving you stuck with penny stocks and pathetic premiums. Forget the textbook wisdom about 1%-3% position sizing — small accounts need 5% allocations and risk-defined spreads to generate actual returns. Success demands embracing higher risk per position, trading iron condors over naked puts, and collecting meaningful premium instead of chasing false diversification. Kai Zeng provides the roadmap.

Remember when Elon Musk was going to slash $2 trillion from the federal budget? That number became $1 trillion, then $150 billion, and now we're celebrating a whopping $9.4 billion in cuts that Congress probably won't even pass. Meanwhile, Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill" adds $2.4 trillion to the deficit, federal courts are reinstating fired workers with back pay, and the world's most successful operator just got schooled by bureaucratic inertia. Turns out the government is good at a couple of things — spending and self-preservation. Plus, math doesn't vote. Read Full Story

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